The rising popularity and mainstream use of unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAV”) for commercial and industrial uses has led to the development of numerous applications and services involving such UAVs. With such burgeoning development, it is becoming increasingly difficult to adequately mount specific selections or combinations of optical, photographic, or other instrumentation and devices to a UAV for individualized use in a particular application, which may also include employing the UAV as a transport and/or delivery vehicle for goods, equipment, instrumentation, or the like. While some existing UAV mounting systems may include one or more supports or gimbals to attach a small number of instruments, the range of adjustments or configurations continues to be limited, thus restricting use and effectiveness of a UAV. The present disclosure provides improved systems and methods of use thereof for attaching payloads externally to a UAV that offer increased flexibility in carrying capacity and mounting position/orientation than is currently available.